Amongst the bustling 24-hour shopping district of South Korea‘s capital city, Zaha Hadid has completed a 38,000-square-metre cultural complex with a twinkling aluminium facade (+ movie).
Inaugurated on Friday, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) by Zaha Hadid Architects provides Seoul with a hub for art, design and technology, plus a landscaped park that serves as a much-needed green oasis, and a public plaza linking the two.
The building features a shapely facade made up of 45,000 aluminium panels of varying sizes and curvatures. This was achieved using advanced 3-dimensional digital construction services, making DDP the first public building in Korea to utilise the technology.
Described by the designers as “a field of pixilation and perforation patterns”, the backlit facade is speckled with minute perforations that allow the building to transform from a solid entity by day into an animated light show by night.
“The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape,” said Zaha Hadid Architects in a statement.
The complex is made up of eight storeys, of which four sit above ground level and four are set below the plaza. Facilities include exhibition galleries, convention and seminar rooms, a design museum, and a library and education centre.
Voids puncturing the surface of the park offer a look down into the spaces below, and also allow daylight to permeate the building.
The building opened on 21 March to mark the start of Korean Fashion Week, but is also hosting five art and design exhibitions, alongside a collection of Korean art from the Kansong Art Museum.
Here’s the project description from Zaha Hadid Architects:
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)
The DDP has been designed as a cultural hub at the centre of Dongdaemun, a historic district of Seoul that is now renowned for its 24-hour shopping and cafes. DDP is a place for people of all ages; a catalyst for the instigation and exchange of ideas and for new technologies and media to be explored. The variety of public spaces within DDP include Exhibition Halls, Convention Halls, Design Museum, Library, Lab and Archives, Children’s Education Centre, Media Centre, Seminar Rooms and Sky Lounge; enabling DDP to present the widest diversity of exhibitions and events that feed the cultural vitality of the city.
The DDP is an architectural landscape that revolves around the ancient city wall and cultural artefacts discovered during archaeological excavations preceding DDP’s construction. These historic features form the central element of DDP’s composition; linking the park, plaza and city together.
The design is the very specific result of how the context, local culture, programmatic requirements and innovative engineering come together – allowing the architecture, city and landscape to combine in both form and spatial experience – creating a whole new civic space for the city.
The DDP Park is a place for leisure, relaxation and refuge – a new green oasis within the busy urban surroundings of Dongdaemun. The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape. Voids in the park’s surface give visitors glimpses into the innovative world of design below, making the DDP an important link between the city’s contemporary culture, emerging nature and history.
The 30,000 square metre park reinterprets the spatial concepts of traditional Korean garden design: layering, horizontality, blurring the relationship between the interior and the exterior – with no single feature dominating the perspective. This approach is further informed by historic local painting traditions that depict grand visions of the ever-changing aspects of nature.
DDP encourages many contributions and innovations to feed into each other; engaging the community and allowing talents and ideas to flourish. In combination with the city’s exciting public cultural programs, DDP is an investment in the education and inspiration of future generations.
DDP’s design and construction sets many new standards of innovation. DDP is the first public project in Korea to implement advanced 3-dimensional digital construction services that ensure the highest quality and cost controls. These include 3-dimensional Building Information Modelling (BIM) for construction management and engineering coordination, enabling the design process to adapt with the evolving client brief and integrate all engineering requirements.
These innovations have enabled the team building DDP to control the construction with much greater precision than conventional processes and improve efficiencies. Implementing such construction technologies make DDP one of Korea’s most innovative and technological advanced constructions to date.
DDP opens to the public on 21 March 2014 by hosting Korean Fashion Week. DDP will also host five separate design and art exhibitions featuring works by modern designers as well as the prized collection of traditional Korean art of the Kansong Art Museum.
As Italy’s furniture industry struggles to bounce back after the recession, has Copenhagen regained its place as Europe’s design capital?
During the 1950s and 1960s, furniture enthusiasts from all over Europe and America flocked to Copenhagen to preview designs by Modernists Hans J. Wegner, Arne Jacobsen, Poul Kjaerholm and Finn Juhl – the old masters. Now Danish design is flourishing again.
Work by these designers has recently returned to the fore as the 100th anniversaries of their births have been celebrated.
Wishbone Chair by Hans J. Wegner, 1949, produced by Carl Hansen and Son. Main image: Egg Chair and Stool by Arne Jacobsen, 1958, produced by Republic of Fritz Hansen
Danish design expert Christian Holmsted Olesen, who has curated an upcoming exhibition of work by Wegner at Copenhagen’s Dansk Design Museum, was one of the first to recognise the resurgence. “Here at the museum we have been experiencing it for 15 years now,” he said. “It started with the anniversary in 2002 when Arne Jacobsen would have been 100. Since then Danish design has been very popular again.”
While these grand masters are enjoying as much success now as they were in the mid-twentieth century, new Danish companies have also sprung onto the scene during the last decade and are fast becoming as popular.
The furniture by the masters is targeting the international luxury market, but brands including Hay, Muuto, &tradition, Normann Copenhagen and Menu are producing more affordable furniture. “[These] are all new brands, maybe ten years old, and their concept is to make Danish or Scandinavian design in the known style but a lot cheaper,” said Holmsted Olesen. “I think that’s the reason for their success, because a lot of the Danish design has become too expensive.”
PK24 chair by Poul Kjaerholm, 1965, produced by Republic of Fritz Hansen
Starting a new company in the shade of such a cultural heritage wasn’t easy, said Hay cofounder Rolf Hay.
“It had limitations, coming from a culture with such a strong background because in the beginning we were compared to these architects,” Hay told Dezeen.
“‘Why do a new chair when Arne Jacobsen already did the best chair in the world?’ It was really a struggle to get out of the shadows of the masters, but perhaps it was healthy to be challenged,” he continued.
Hay revealed that inspiration for the company’s concept of collaborating with international designers actually came from Italy. Hay had previously worked with Danish firm Gubi selling designs by Milanese brand Cappellini.
“Cappellini brought the whole world to Italy,” said Hay. “It was the first company to work with BarberOsgerby, the Bouroullecs, and it is still working with Jasper Morrison.”
Ant chair by Arne Jacobsen, 1952, produced by Republic of Fritz Hansen
Hay realised that cost was an issue for Cappellini and saw a gap in the market for similar products with more reasonable price tags: “There was a large group of people who appreciated Cappellini but could not afford it, so that was a starting point for our company. If we could do products on a very high design level but for an affordable price then there would eventually be a market there.”
Other Danish design companies had similar ideas around the same time. This group of contemporary brands that emerged almost simultaneously, aimed at the same high-end low-cost market, are now creating healthy competition amongst themselves.
“In Copenhagen right now it’s quite interesting,” said Hay. “We’re competitors but we have a good understanding and a good relationship with each other.”
Hay has a theory about why they have survived and even thrived during the recession. “It’s maybe not so much about aesthetic, but more about ethic and about business mentality,” said Hay. “These companies are good at making products that clients are demanding.”
The Danish brands’ recession-busting success hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Italian companies. “I know for example that Vitra is studying what Hay is doing because they cannot understand how these companies are expanding as fast as they are,” Holmsted Olesen revealed. “The secret is that they understand that you do not want to pay more than £100 for a chair. They know exactly what the consumer is willing to pay.”
Another factor that could be contributing to the country’s success is the help given to up-and-coming designers. Both local brands and the government nurture talent emerging from Denmark’s design schools.
Young Danish designers Line Depping and Jakob Jørgensen both contribute to Hay’s collections and are also are able to work on their own projects. “We have an agreement that we work for them and have our things in production for them, as well as doing things for galleries and exhibitions,” said Depping.
This balance between working on commercial products and experimental pieces creates optimal relationships for the designers and the brand. “[Hay] know that a lot of good ideas come from the freedom that comes from smaller projects,” said Jørgensen. “Things can appear that are relevant for them so they definitely support that.”
Mirror by Kaschkasch Cologne for Menu
The Danish government also offers a range of grants and financial aids that designers can apply for each year. Further assistance is provided by funded workshop spaces for designers to come and use.
Located in a former warehouse on Copenhagen’s waterfront, the Danish Art Workshops provide facilities including workshops for wood, metal, textiles and other materials that artists and designers can apply to use free of charge for short or long-term residencies. This gives them the opportunity to create large-scale pieces that wouldn’t fit in their own studios, or use specialist equipment with the assistance of trained technicians.
Additionally, the government supports a different set of designers each year to create pieces for the Mindcraft exhibition in Milan during the city’s design week in April. This exhibition promotes notion of craft and focus on quality, something that forms the link through Danish design – from its historical roots all the way to contemporary production.
Cover chair by Thomas Bentzen for Muuto
This national design identity is appreciated worldwide and part of this is maintaining and promoting the idea of high-quality products. “Danish design is more about marketing that about products”, said Rolf Hay. “All these companies have a high-end design profile but they’re good at selling the idea.”
An enduring design tradition and history, healthy competition between business-minded brands and continued support for new talent has kept Denmark’s industry solid while Italy’s appears to be struggling. So is Copenhagen the new Milan?
“I’m going to say yes,” proclaimed Holmsted Olesen. “It’s possible, we’ve done it before. In the 1950s everyone came to Copenhagen to see what happened so of course it’s possible, if we keep doing it right.”
Paris studio Jouin Manku installed a sculptural fireplace and chose materials with natural tones and textures to give this lounge in Munich‘s Bayerischer Hof hotel the feel of a fantasy forest landscape.
Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku of Jouin Manku designed the lounge on the sixth floor of the Bayerischer Hof hotel, along with an adjacent restaurant and a private dining room.
A funnel-shaped chimney drops down from the ceiling of the lounge to cover an elliptical stone fireplace, which is surrounded by curving benches.
Porcelain ribs encircling the base of the chimney also feature on the front of the curving bar and create surfaces with constantly shifting reflections.
Alcoves containing benches interrupt the pale green walls that complement the stone flooring and furniture made from wood and leather.
A restaurant next to the lounge features alcoves containing benches with undulating three-dimensional back panels carved from aerated concrete to suggest a mountainous scene.
“Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku’s idea was to offer guests views even inside the room, recreating a natural landscape and fantasy all at once,” the designers explained.
Lighting hidden in the curving folds of the surfaces illuminates their topographical shape, based on “a mineral horizon made of stone and snow which appears to be carved into the rock.”
A terrace connected to the restaurant provides additional dining space with views across the city towards the distant mountains.
Louvred panels on the ceiling conceal lighting and are arranged in a staggered formation that leads towards the windows.
Supporting beams made from American walnut continue over the walls to enhance the natural feel of the space.
Between the dining room and the lounge is an area dedicated to buffets, with two rounded service areas standing on a concrete floor beneath a copper ceiling that evokes traditional cooking pans.
Jouin Manku designed a further room located on the seventh floor called the Bird’s Nest, set to open later in the spring. It will house a single dining table for private events with a view across the city.
Belgian architect Karel Verstraeten has transformed an abandoned construction-site trailer into a quiet retreat at the end of a family garden in Ghent.
The clients bought the trailer from the local government for just €15 (about £12) and asked asked Karel Verstraeten to redesign it. “They thought of using it as a place to rest, play or study, for them and their two sons,” he said.
The trailer had previously been used as a temporary mobile office on a construction site and had to be towed to the site by a local farmer.
All the work was carried out by the family. They clad the trailer with strips of oak and added a metre-wide domed window to the far end to create submarine-like views of the surrounding fields.
The interior was stripped bare, before plywood was fixed over the walls, floor and ceiling. The junctions between these surfaces are curved, adding to the sense of enclosure.
Site plan
Wooden runners were attached to the lengths of the walls at even intervals, on which planks of wood can be rested at the different heights. This flexible design allows the owners to create a desk, a low table or even a bed.
Architecture studio AOC has renovated a four-storey townhouse in north London, adding wall-hung vintage bicycles and timber mouldings based on the faces of the resident family.
Named Bonhôte House, the nineteenth-century property was remodelled by London-based AOC to create a contemporary family home for a boutique owner, a film producer and their young children.
The house now features an open-plan interior designed to meet the family’s need for space, with a two-storey-high gallery added for displaying vintage bicycles and artwork.
A large portion of the original ground floor was removed, enabling the architects to create the double-height gallery at the front of the house.
The new entrance hall allows natural light to fill the room through an original Victorian window with folding shutters. Two bicycles hang on hooks from an adjacent wall, ensuring that they can be seen from various angles.
Shelving built into the walls provides a space for displaying the family’s large collection of books and objects.
“The family had a fascinating collection of artefacts they wished to display, from Dan Holdsworth prints to Paris flea market nicknacks,” architect Geoff Shearcroft told Dezeen.
To add character, the architects used the facial profiles of each family member to produce a series of bespoke timber mouldings, which are dotted throughout the interior.
These create a ripple effect when joined together and act as a contemporary counterpoint to the original Victorian skirting boards and architraves.
“Much ornament in architecture has the human form as its basis and we continued this tradition with a very literal translation of facial profile into moulding,” said Shearcroft.
Facial profiles of the family members as timber mouldings
Across the lower ground floor, a tiled floor with a basket-weave pattern connects the living space with the kitchen and provides a hard-wearing surface for the growing family.
“We explored a variety of patterns but the basket weave offered the right combination of rich associations, closed openness and playful variation,” said the architect.
In the kitchen, mirrored laminate surfaces create an extension of the pattern and reflect light back into the room.
A slumped concrete sofa sits at the foot of a brass decorative staircase, which leads up to bedrooms and bathrooms on the first floor.
Continuing up through the property, the original floor plan has been altered to connect the master bedroom to an en suite that overlooks the park.
“We re-configured the plan to create a series of different character spaces that were visually and vertically connected,” added Shearcroft.
Here’s a description of Bonhôte House from the architects:
Bonhôte House, Stoke Newington, London
The Bonhôte House is a four storey townhouse in Stoke Newington, home to a film producer, a boutique owner and their young children. The couple needed more room for a growing family, and for their contemporary art and vintage bicycle collections, than their previous Shoreditch, East London mews house offered. They asked AOC to design a home that felt big yet intimate, luxurious yet useful, sophisticated yet playful, beautiful yet cosy.
The original 19th century property was narrow, dark and unwelcoming, and had been stripped bare by its previous owners. A key architectural move has been to remove a large area of floor, merging basement and ground levels at the front of the house to create a generous double height gallery, into which a new decorative stair descends from the entrance hall. This act of opening-up brings natural light into the basement living space, and creates expansive walls for display of large artworks and objects and for storage of valuable books.
On the upper levels, non-structural walls have been relocated to shape a range of spaces appropriate to the family’s lives. Throughout the property, new doors and internal windows connect individual rooms while maintaining distinctions between them, offering glimpses through the house itself, and then out into the city beyond.
The family wanted a characterful home, contemporary in tone without feeling ‘new’. In response, AOC enriched bare walls with bespoke timber profiles created from the facial profiles of family members – a reinterpretation of traditional mouldings. Used as skirtings, architraves and linings, these ornamental features ensure each room is uniquely tailored to its inhabitants. In the lower, more public, levels, all four mouldings are combined to create a rippling timber lining that softens and connects.
A unique domestic character has been created through deploying a range of materials, chosen for their associative qualities, to create diverse surface effects. A slumped concrete sofa, tinted green, anchors the new staircase at the centre of the plan, before evolving into a kitchen work surface. The use of mirrored laminate on storage units helps them dissolve into their surroundings, while providing endless games of reflection for the children. A basket weave floor pattern, used in a variety of scales and materials, reinforces the individual characters of different parts of the house whilst creating a coherent whole.
The architects worked closely with the family to ensure the house could support the visual choreography of special objects, while still being a practical space, able to manage their storage needs in a discreet, integrated way. The subsequent combination of bespoke panelling with open shelves, interspersed with glazed, mirror and even secret doors, bestows an ‘instant maturity’ upon the home, as though the family have been there for generations.
An angular metal-clad canopy now projects over a public square at the entrance to Rotterdam Centraal station, which reopened last week following an extensive remodelling by a team including Dutch firm Benthem Crouwel Architects (+ slideshow).
A project team called Team CS, comprising Benthem Crouwel Architects, MVSA Architects and landscape firm West 8, was tasked with redeveloping the existing station built in 1957, which was struggling to meet the demands of a modern transportation hub.
The architects expanded the main station complex and updated the surrounding public spaces to improve the building’s integration with its urban context.
“The new station is not only larger, brighter and more orderly than the former, but also has an international feel; it beautifully complements both the efficiency of the hi-speed stop and Rotterdam city’s bold ambitions for urban development and renewal,” said the architects in a statement.
A modest entrance on the north side of the station reflects the character of its historic surroundings and the smaller number of passengers who use it, while the shiny canopy above the main entrance signals the station’s presence to those approaching from the city.
“The roof of the hall, fully clad with stainless steel, gives rise to the building’s iconic character and points to the heart of the city,” said the architects.
The underside of the projecting structure is partly clad in wood and envelops a glazed wall that opens up to a bright forecourt with an angular wooden ceiling.
“The wood finish on the inside of the hall, combined with the structural wooden beams of the platform roof creates a warm and welcoming ambience, inviting visitors to linger,” the architects added.
Stone floor slabs with a reddish hue continue from the esplanade into the station’s forecourt, helping to enhance the connection between the external and internal spaces.
Parking for 750 cars and 5200 bicycles is hidden away underneath the esplanade. Meanwhile, services for buses, taxis and trams, have been relocated to free up space for pedestrians.
The roof above the platforms is made from glass so passengers arrive into an airy space filled with natural daylight. Light also reaches the lower levels through large voids containing staircases and escalators.
Solar panels partly covering the roof have a high level of transparency to prevent them reducing the amount of light entering the station.
A narrow horizontal LED screen in the main hall was donated by the Port of Rotterdam and displays imagery relating to the city’s heritage as an important port.
Photography is by Jannes Linders, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here’s some more information from the project team:
Rotterdam Centraal
Rotterdam Centraal Station is one of the most important transport hubs in The Netherlands. With 110,000 passengers a day the public transport terminal has as many travellers as Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. In addition to the European network of the High Speed Train (HST), Rotterdam Centraal is also connected to the light rail system, RandstadRail. With the advent of both the HST and RandstadRail the number of daily travellers at Rotterdam Centraal is expected to increase to approximately 323,000 by 2025.
Rotterdam HST is the first stop in the Netherlands when travelling from the south and is strategically positioned in the middle of Europe, with Schiphol only twenty minutes and Paris a mere two and a half hours away. Hence the new station is not only larger, brighter and more orderly than the former, but also has an international feel; it beautifully complements both the efficiency of the Hispeed stop and the Rotterdam city’s bold ambitions for urban development and renewal. The station matches in all respects the practicality, capacity, comfort and allure, of the central stations of Madrid, Paris, London and Brussels.
Integration in urban environment
One of the fundamental challenges of Rotterdam Centraal station was the difference in the urban character of the north and south side of the station. The entrance on the north side has a modest design, appropriate to the character of the neighbourhood Provenierswijk and the smaller number of passengers. The entrance gradually connects to the city. In the Provenierswijk the character of the 19th-century Dutch provincial town is strengthened. Large architectural extensions are avoided on this side of the station, the presence of green is ameliorated and the station is transparent.
In contrast, the grand entrance on the city side is clearly the gateway to the high-rise urban centre. Here the station derives its new international, metropolitan identity from the hall made of glass and wood. The roof of the hall, fully clad with stainless steel, gives rise to building’s iconic character and points to the heart of the city.
Now Rotterdam Centraal has the appropriate structure and dimensions for the urban landscape; it is in balance with the heights that characterise the metropolis and simultaneously reflects the human scale. The city of Rotterdam is drawn to the new station via the compaction of the small-scale urban texture surrounding the public transport terminal. The entire railway zone becomes one with the city. This finer urban texture with new sight lines and a mixture of living and working will dramatically improve the quality of life and the environment of the station area.
The esplanade in front of the station is a continuous public space. To achieve this simplicity a parking garage for 750 cars and a bicycle shed for 5,200 bicycles are located under the square. The tram station is moved to the east side of the station, so the platforms broaden the square. Bus, tram, taxi and the area for short-term parking are integrated into the existing urban fabric and do not constitute barriers. The red stone of the station floor continues into the forecourt, merging the station with the city. Pedestrian and cycling routes are pleasant and safe and arriving travellers now have dignified entrance to the city, free from traffic.
Incorporation of natural light, the warmth of the sun’s rays and a modern look are important elements in the design. The platform roof on the Proveniersside is transparent. When the train drives into the station, there is an almost tangible feeling of being enshrouded in the station building. Upon entering in the bright high hall through the centre side, the traveler gets an overview of the entire complex and a view to the trains that are waiting invitingly along the platforms.
The wood finish on the inside of the hall, combined with the structural wooden beams of the platform roof creates a warm and welcoming ambience, inviting visitors to linger. The largely transparent roof structure which covers all the tracks over a length of 250 meters, flood the platforms with light. The glass plates of the roof vary the level of light transmittance by utilising different solar cells patterns, which produce an ever-changing and fascinating play of shadows on the platforms.
The routing through the station is logical; travellers are guided by a direct view of the trains and by the daylight that penetrates to the traveler’s passage via the voids that extend through the transparent roof platform and down to the stairs. Because of its transparency the widened traveler’s passage, lined with commercial functions, forms a natural part of the station. Escalators, lifts and stairs lead up to the new platforms, which feature inviting and comfortable platform furniture. On the west side of the station there is a footbridge over the tracks for travellers in transit. This footbridge also functions as an escape route in the event of an emergency.
The passenger terminal is a national and international hub that connects train, tram, bus and subway. The public transport terminal is designed for passenger comfort, which is visible in the different zones of the station. It includes commercial spaces, a lounge, restaurants, offices, parking for cars and bicycles. In the spacious concourse the passenger service functions are conveniently arranged. There is travel information, an information point, the Dutch Railways (NS) travellers shop, ticket vending machines and commercial functions. The grand café and the NS-lounge offer spectacular views across the hall and the adjacent tracks. Waiting areas in the hall and the passage are linked to the passenger flows, with areas both for browsing and quick shopping.
The new Rotterdam Centraal Station is a pleasant, open and transparent public transport terminal which functions as an iconic meeting point. Interwoven into the urban network, the station connects the diverse characters of the city and marks the beginning of Rotterdam’s cultural axis. This modern and efficient building offers travellers to and from the port city all the amenities and comfort they could want or need in the present and the future.
Windows with 130,000 solar cells cover 10,000 m2 of the total roof area of 28,000 m2. This is the largest application of solar energy in a station roof in The Netherlands and is also one of the largest rooftop solar projects in Europe. The solar cells are placed on the parts of the roof that get the most sun, taking into account the high buildings around Rotterdam Centraal. The glass panels vary in light transmittance by using different patterns in the solar cells. Where the roof has the greatest efficiency in terms of sunlight, the cell density is the highest. The solar cells that are integrated in the roof have a high degree of transparency, so there is ample light. The solar cells represent an 8% reduction in the station’s CO2 emissions. The cells are expected to generate 320 megawatt per annum, which is enough energy for 100 households.
The former station was designed by Sybold of Ravesteyn in 1957. However, this post-war building was no longer suitable for the current passenger numbers and complexity of the transport hub. In order to maintain the connection with the past after the demolition of the building, several characteristic elements from the former station can be found in the new Rotterdam Centraal. The Speculaasjes, two typical granite sculptures are placed above the access to the bike tunnel. The beginning of the esplanade is defined by two flagpoles, which were also part of the former station. Moreover, the letters ROTTERDAM CENTRAAL and the station clock are proudly displayed on the current façade as a tribute to the past.
In the main hall of the station a LED screen of 40 x 4.5 meters has been installed. To emphasise the importance of the port and to strengthen the bond between the city and the port, the Port of Rotterdam donated the LED screen to the City of Rotterdam. By showing elements of the port on this LED screen, the Port of Rotterdam wants to give the thousands of travellers who arrive daily in Rotterdam the feeling that they have entered a port city, even though the port has slowly disappeared from the cityscape, due to seawards development. Now travellers can enjoy views of Europe’s largest port at all hours and times of the day.
Team CS is a cooperation between Benthem Crouwel Architects, MVSA Meyer en Van Schooten Architecten and West 8. This unique combination of designers came to existence in 2003, when the competition for the new Rotterdam Centraal was issued.
Client: Gemeente Rotterdam and ProRail Architect Team CS: a cooperation between Benthem Crouwel Architects, MVSA Meyer en van Schooten Architecten and West 8 Gross floor area: 46,000 m² Gross floor area urban design: 50,000 m² Location: Stationsplein 1, 3013 AJ Rotterdam, The Netherlands Lead architects: Jan Benthem, Marcel Blom, Adriaan Geuze, Jeroen van Schooten Project team: Arman Akdogan, Anja Blechen, Freek Boerwinkel, Amir Farokhian, Joost Koningen, Joost van Noort, Falk Schneeman, Daphne Schuit, Matthijs Smit (†), Andrew Tang, Wouter Thijssen, Joost Vos Structural engineer: Arcadis and Gemeentewerken Rotterdam Mechanical services: Arcadis and Gemeentewerken Rotterdam Building physics: Arcadis and Gemeentewerken Rotterdam Contractor: Bouwcombinatie TBI Rotterdam Centraal (BTRC), Iemants NV (zuidhal)
Dezeen Music Project: a little girl drawn with crayons goes on a journey across the ocean in this animated music video by Rosanna Wan for Tom Rosenthal’s track I Like It When You’re Gone.
Wan drew all of the animation sequences for the music video by hand on rolls of newsprint and then digitally composited them together.
“It was a very economical process,” Wan told Dezeen. “The kid is on one layer and the scrolling background is made up of all these other looping elements.”
Rather than spend time trying to minimise the boiling effect – the wobbly lines that occur in hand-drawn animations because of the slight variations between frames – Wan chose to make a feature out of it.
“There’s a meandering rhythm and melody to the song,” Wan said. “I wanted that same quality to come through in the visuals.”
The protagonist’s journey starts in a small sailing boat, before she jumps into the ocean and continues on the back of a giant fish.
“The idea was to illustrate a simple journey, but to have that journey experienced in a new light, turning it into an adventure,” Wan said. “It’s about enjoying your own aloneness and rediscovering a landscape that has come to be taken for granted. That’s how I interpreted Tom’s song, anyway.”
Tom Rosenthal is a musician based in London. I Like It When You’re Gone is taken from his second album, Who’s That In The Fog?, which was released last year on Tinpot Records.
The facades of well-known buildings in Paris, New York and Brisbane have been reduced to a series of patterned surfaces and silhouettes in this series of images by French photographer Alexander Jacques (+ slideshow).
Tour Ariane in Paris
Jacques’ Architectural Pattern series captures the exteriors of buildings without any surrounding context, transforming them into abstract surfaces that the author says can offer new perspectives on what many perceive as ordinary.
Tour Espace 2000 in Paris
“We spend all day walking past these buildings without raising our heads to glance at them,” explained Jacques. “They are part of our daily lives, but we do not pay attention to them or we just think they’re plain ugly.”
Tour Mirabeau in Paris
The collection of 25 images is documented on Jacques’s website and includes buildings by celebrated architects and firms such as Renzo Piano, SOM, Johann Otto von Spreckelsen and Kisho Kurokawa.
World Trade Centre in New York
The photographer came up with the idea during a visit to New York, after taking a picture of a brick building in Soho. “When I returned to NYC for the second time, at the end of my studies, I had a higher sensitivity to graphics.”
FBI Building in New York
“I was more interested in the buildings than the rest of New York folklore. I saw lines and patterns everywhere. It was amazing. I spent whole days looking to the sky,” he explained.
1221 Avenue of the Americas in New York
Other images from this city include a close-up of the Mc-Graw Hill Building at the Rockefeller Centre, which looks more like a piece of woven fabric than an office building.
Two World Financial Centre in New York
“Sometimes I am surprised how a facade that I see with my eyes can make a picture. First we forget that it is a building, then the lines and perspective transform everything. In the end we only see the pattern,” said Jacques.
Arche de le Défense in Paris
In Paris, Johann Otto von Spreckelsen’s Grande Arche becomes a series of gold and blue diamond-shaped boxes, while the pod-like rooms of the Tour Novotel are transformed into a series of neatly arranged poppies, broken up by lines of silver.
Tour Novotel in Paris
The gentle flowing lines of Jean-Paul Viguier‘s Coeur Defense, Europe’s biggest building by floor space, are shown as squares and rectangles changing from shades of royal and sky blue, to white and teal.
Cœur Défense in Paris
Jacques hopes to continue the series by visiting more cities, including Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai. Prints of the photographs are available to buy via the website.
Swedish studio Sweco Architects has covered the ceiling of this hair salon in Umeå with 85 green MDF boxes.
Sweco Architects installed glass fronts and doors at each end of the narrow Clip Drop In hair salon; one that opens out onto a street and the other onto an indoor shopping mall.
The central strip of ceiling has been covered in lidless MDF boxes, which have been fixed upside-down.
The boxes vary in size and have been painted six different shades of green. Some have been turned into light boxes while others simply hide the ventilation pipes.
“The green colour of the MDF boxes was chosen to create a feeling of sitting under the leaves of a big tree,” Peter Järvholm of Sweco Architects told Dezeen.
The surrounding ceiling is covered by a metal grid. “We wanted a clean transparent ceiling where all the installations (fans, cooling etc) and light fittings were placed above,” said the architects.
Below the green boxes, white trestle-like benches have been transformed into workspaces. Double-sided mirrors divide the tables to create hair-cutting areas on each side.
The workspaces are arranged in rows along the centre of the salon with swivel Swan chairs by Arne Jacobsen for customers.
One wall of the salon is lined with perforated steel screens, which illuminate at night along with the neon Clip signs at each entrance when the salon is closed. Built-in sofas with green cushions and display areas are positioned on the opposite wall.
On the busier mall side, an area at the front of the salon has been designated to retail. To one side there is a hair-washing area, partly hidden behind a curtain.
The bathroom is disguised behind full-length mirrors. “By using a lot of mirrors we created the effect of a larger salon and the mirrors also hide the wet areas,” said Peter Järvholm.
The floors are covered in white stained-ash mosaic parquet and ceramic tiles.
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